News Release Number: STScI-2012-33

ESO Telescopes Find Most Stellar Heavyweights Don't Live Alone

July 26, 2012: A new study using European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes, including
the Very Large Telescope, has shown that most very bright high-mass stars,
which drive the evolution of galaxies, do not live alone. Almost three-quarters
of the stars studied are found to have a close companion star, far more than
previously thought. Surprisingly most of these pairs are also experiencing
disruptive interactions, such as mass transfer from one star to the other, and
about one-third are even expected to ultimately merge to form a single star.
The results are published in the July 27 issue of the journal Science.